University of Minnesota Athletics
No. 10 Minnesota to Face No. 4 Illinois
1/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
The No. 10 University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team will travel to Champaign, Ill. to take on No. 4 University of Illinois in its first head-to-head conference match up. Action is set to begin at 4 p.m. CT.
When they met last...
Last April at the NCAA Championships held in Ann Arbor, Mich., both Gopher and Illini gymnasts earned individual titles with juniors, Ellis Mannon on the pommel horse and Illinois' Jordan Valdez on the high bar.
The Illini also collected four top-three finishes with freshman Chandler Eggleston taking second on floor exercise and vault and sophomore C.J. Maestas, earning third on the floor and second on the still rings.
At the 2014 Big Ten Championships, Minnesota finished fifth overall with a score of 429.150 while Illinois inched ahead into the fourth spot after earning 435.350.
Four Illini gymnasts earned conference honors and Eggleston took home the floor exercise title with a mark of 15.725. Valdez also impressed and took home second place in both the parallel and high bar events.
For the Gophers, Mannon earned the Big Ten pommel horse title with a score of 15.325, his second highest score of the season. Sophomore Jack Metcalf tied for fifth on the still rings after tallying a 15.175. Junior Steve Jaciuk competed on the parallel and high bar events in the individual finals where he placed fifth and seventh, respectively.
Earlier in the season, Minnesota hosted the Big Ten rivals at home in a tri-team meet which also featured the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
This match-up marked the team's first win of the 2014 season, edging out Illinois 435.000 to 432.700 and Nebraska, who tallied 420.700.
After five rotations, the Gophers and Illini were tied at 364.000 points with Minnesota last up on the high bar and Illinois on the parallel bars. Gopher senior Sam Wright, a transfer from Iowa, set a season high score on the high bar with a 14.600 adding to the team total 71.000. This solidified the Gopher win in dramatic fashion.
Air Force Meet recap
Last weekend, the Gophers welcomed the Air Force Academy Falcons to open up the first of four home meets.
Solidifying their first win of the season with an overall score of 425.100 to 407.150, the team fell short of sweeping the events by just 1.1 points on the pommel horse and 0.4 of a point on vault.
On the floor, freshman Jack Kramer took second with a score of 14.75 while senior Sean Bauer tallied a 14.65 and took first on the vault with scoring a 14.70. Junior and co-captain, Paul Montague, Jr., earned a 14.45 on pommel horse and second on parallel bars while Jackiuk earned the second highest score of the night tallying an impressive 15.05 on still rings.
Opponent's Results
This past weekend, the Illini traveled to Columbus, Ohio to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in head-to-head conference action. With an overall score of 434.400 to Ohio State's 431.700, the Illini claimed their third straight victory of the season.
The Illini gymnasts recorded impressive scores on the night including a 15.400 mark by freshman Bobby Baker on the floor. Sophomore Taylor Smith tallied a career-high 14.650 on floor to finish in the second spot. Senior Mike Wilner recorded the highest score for the team and tied his overall career high with a 15.900 mark on the still rings.
The team also set a new team high score on the high bar with an overall score of 73.850, which bested their 2013 season mark of 73.350 on the event.
Gophers in the National Rankings
With their victory over the Falcons last weekend, Minnesota moved up one spot in the national rankings and now sit at No.10.
The top three spots are held by Oklahoma, Penn State and Stanford respectively. Seven of the Big Ten teams are within the top 10 nationally.
This weekend's opponent, the University of Illinois Illini claimed the fourth spot.
Looking Ahead
Next week, the Gophers will return home to host the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames and Nebraska Cornhuskers.
The meet is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. CT and will be streamed live on BTN Plus ($). Fans will also be able to follow live scoring or Twitter for live in-meet updates.
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Players Mentioned
